Workout Modifications When You're Short On Time

Although I love to lift and have been a personal trainer for almost 15 years, I hate spending more time than necessary in the gym. I got shit to do. So over the years, I’ve learned the best ways to shorten workouts with as little sacrifice as possible.

These are my top suggestions.

Stop Doing Long Warm-Ups

A warm-up, in my opinion, should accomplish two main things: increase body temperature and prepare you for what you’re about to do. There are few instances where your body is so cold that it inhibits movement, so most of the focus should be on the second aim.

Long, elaborate warm-ups full of “soft-tissue mobilization”, “activation exercises”, and a laundry list of arbitrary movements designed to prepare you for everything under the sun aren’t necessary. If your warm-up is taking you longer than 5 minutes (or maybe 10 if you’re especially “sticky”) or so, it’s probably too long.

The workout is where the benefit lies, so keep the focus on it. I’ve covered how I implement specific warm-ups in a previous article here.

Use Supersets Or Circuits

I almost exclusively use supersets for my own program and for the programs of my clients. Supersets are when you combine two exercises in a series and alternate them. This is opposed to straight sets where you do one exercise, rest, and perform that same exercise again.

Supersets are the best way to shave time off your workout and when programmed correctly, they won’t take anything away from the stimulus.

Circuits are basically large supersets—or are supersets small circuits 🤔? You can reduce your workout time even further by doing all the exercises in succession, but there are a couple caveats:

• Circuits are relatively easy to do with minimal equipment, but if they require a rack, free weights, machines, etc. they may be difficult to do logistically.

• Circuits can be fatiguing. It’s one thing to manage two exercises together, but to manage fatigue when you’re targeting many muscle groups in rapid succession is a big ask.

• Because of point two, you may not be able to get as much out of each exercise as you would if you did them separately or in a superset.

Stick To Compound Exercises

Compound exercises typically cross multiple joints and target several muscles or muscle groups. These are the big exercises like deadlifts, squats, pull-ups/chin-ups, rows, bench press, overhead press, or any machines that mimic these movements. Using compounds, you can target more muscle in less time than if you were to try to use isolation exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, lateral raises, pec flys, etc.

When time is of the essence, it doesn’t make sense to target one muscle or muscle group at a time. Keep only the most efficient exercises.

Drop The Number Of Sets

The first set of an exercise carries the bulk of the stimulus. Every subsequent set thereafter provides a diminishing return. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should only ever do one set, as most folks likely wouldn’t be satisfied with the growth that provided. But it does mean that one set provides a disproportionate return over zero sets.

Doing the exercise at the prescribed weight and reps but dropping a set or two will maintain a large portion of the stimulus and cut the workout time significantly.

I like dropping the sets personally because I still get exposed to the exercise and the same weight. If you drop the weight or nix the exercise entirely, the next time you do the exercise will often feel more difficult.

Take (Some) Sets To Failure

If you’re doing your normal 3-5 sets of an exercise, true failure can be counterproductive. But if you’re only doing 1-2 sets, failure ensures that you’re squeezing as much out of each set as possible.

If you’re only doing one set, going to failure is a no brainer, but if you’re doing multiple sets, you may want to consider only going to failure on your last set.

Shorten Your Rest Periods

This is mostly a reminder to not dick around between sets. This isn’t about going from normal rest with full recovery to short rest with subpar recovery. It’s about not taking any more rest than is absolutely necessary.

Set a timer and stick to it. If you have limited time, prune excessive rest.

Add Drop Sets

I don’t like drop sets as a standard practice because they add a lot of fatigue for almost no extra benefit, but if you’re only doing one set, they’re great.

Drop sets are when you do your first set to complete failure, take weight off, and then do another set to complete failure. You can repeat this as many times as you want for any rep range.

There are no set rules for how to perform these, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The jumps shouldn’t be too big or too small. The higher the absolute weight, the larger the jumps will need to be. You want to take off enough to do a similar number of reps for each set. Rep drop off is fine, but if you’re able to do more reps than the previous set, you probably took too much off.

• To add to point one, load the original weight up with smaller plate arrangements so you can easily take them off after each set. If you start with 135 pounds for instance, you may not just want two 45 pound plates but rather some 25s, 10s, 5s, etc.

• Going to failure once can be dangerous, but doing it multiple times can leave you downright helpless. If you’re trying this with something like a bench press, make sure you have a spotter or leave the clips off so you can do the roll of shame if necessary.

Hopefully you found some of those tips useful. If there are any strategies you use or you want to add anything to the conversation, please drop a comment. Thanks for reading!